[Review] Sony CDX-GT410U Car CD/MP3/USB Front AUX

[MiG]

So i decided i needed a new CD player for my car, because the one i got with the car must have been as old as the car, tongue.gif , and didn't really do what i wanted it to do.. so after looking around on the net, i found what looked like to be the perfect CD player for me.

Now, originally, i wanted to have my MP3 player going into the front aux of the cd player, becuase i didn't think there was as CD players on the market that support Sony MP3 players, turns out mine does...

Anyway, the Review:

Packaging, Stuff in the box

So, what do you get, well, you get everything really. My dad reckoned that i would need an interface lead, so i could hook it up to my car or something, but it turns out this came with a interface cable, so installation was a breeze..

You also get mounting screws if your just putting the radio on display, and you also get tools to remove the old cd player, which also work dandy with this CD player..

You also get a nice Remote, as pictured below:

The remote is apparently for people sitting in the back, i've noticed a trend with CD players getting these remotes, you get decent functionality, you can do everything you'd want to be able to... nothing special.. although a nice addition.

You also get a black plastic Carrying case with the words Sony on the top, nothing special again, but a nice inclusion.

Here's a picture of the box with the CD player on Top:

The Packaging is rather cheesy if you ask me, but then again you dont look at the box, and it explains the features nicely.

The Player itself

The CD player, well what can i say, it does everything that you would expect from a CD player.. it does MP3/WMA/AAC/ATRAC formats burnt to disc, something that i've not seen before, but its needed as those are pretty much the formats my MP3 player supports.

Also, you can cycle through albums, then by track... i'm not sure if you can just do a all songs kind of thing, i've not really delved too much into the CD player yet..

Also, you get the choice between red/green illumination, a little touch to change, meaning that most cars light up green, well the interior lights, so makes sense to have green, but my car is red so a bit of mix and match is always good lol..

A Close up pic of the player:

Radio is what you would expect, good reception, presets, FM/LW/MW, and all that.. its a radio, RDS, TP, and all those funky radio functions.

Sound Quality

Though i'm a huge Sony boy, i wasn't expecting much of an improvement over my old CD player, in the terms of sound quality. how wrong could i have been..

The sound on this player is really really good, with it been able to drive my speakers to obscene levels with minimal disortion, mainly because i like my BASS tongue.gif

Anyway, you get a 3 Stage eq, to control the Bass, Treble, and Mids..

There is also a weatlth of inputs on this device, you get AUX on the front/back, AMP output, the lot..

Everything about this CD player, sound quality wise, is perfect.

Walkman Capability

From looking at the box, i thought this CD player would only support USB flash drives, stuff like the shuffle, pen drives etc... It arrived and i see a pic of Sony's Flash players on the box of the unit.. strange i thought, but maybe my NW-A3000 will work when plugged into it..

To be honest, i didnt have much hope of it reading the device, but to my amazement, the player scrolls through the albums on the device, in alphabetical order, and it pulls the track names, album names, the lot.

It has no problem reading the Atrac files i put on there, anything, it worked, to my sheer amazement, as the databases for the NW-A3000 are completely different to there flash counterparts..

Overall, if you have a Sony MP3 Player, this is the iPod Ready equivalent for Sony, and it even charges your Player on the go, nice.

Also, it remembers what album you wer on last when the device was plugged in, which is a nice touch, and then once you unplug the device, the player still has the last tune you listened to portably..

Overall

For 84 quid posted from amazon, you really cant go wrong with this CD player.. it does everything, and is even iPod ready to my knowledge, although i cannot confirm this.

The only thing this CD lacks is DAB radio, it would have been a nice addition but i can imagine a extra 100 quid on the price tag..

I really like this CD player, it does a lot more than i expected, and sounds amazing..

Sony Do get somethings right, after all.

 

[vtec]

Sony have a reputation for less than great sound quality and over pricing.,
personally id never buy another one thanks to the problems ive had in the past with loads of them, also those front mounted aux ports are usless. the sound quality isnt great through them, better stick to the rear ones.,.,

More show than go if you ask me, but seeing as you didnt spend all that much on it,.,.,

 

[MiG]

Sony have a reputation for less than great sound quality and over pricing.,
personally id never buy another one thanks to the problems ive had in the past with loads of them, also those front mounted aux ports are usless. the sound quality isnt great through them, better stick to the rear ones.,.,

More show than go if you ask me, but seeing as you didnt spend all that much on it,.,.,

hmm.. so alpine headunits with total crap features are any better ?

There isnt any other headunit on the market currently with iPod Support, but for sony walkmans.

And the sound quality is really good fyi... i'm kinda an audiophile so i know what sounds good.

 

[vtec]

I'm suprised you even went for a sony walkman if your into your sounds, the are widely known as complete sh*te., I have the 20gb NW-A3000 and ive had the 20gb one before it and the 1gb flash memory one. I got the 20gb and the 1gb as presents but i dont even use them, i have an ipod video instead.,
The sony software is one of the problems i find with the mp3 players.,

Im just saying from personal experience that i find sony to be usless as i work in auto electrics and have fitted more radio's than ive had hot dinners.,.lol
Im not just a sony hater.,lol.,., i used to have my whole car kitted out in XPLOD gear.,

Alpine as a brand are a in a completely different leauge to sony (although i rate pioneer highly) and the fact that not many brands have support for sony walkmans says it all really.,.,.,

 

[chaos]

Good review It's review stuff like this that can really help other members decide what equipment to go for

Now I haven't heard this particular unit, but Sony HUs in general have had a lot left to be desired (IMO). Sony have done the odd cracking piece of equipment (C90R HU for example) though, which shows that they can and do get it right. However, they get it wrong more than they get it right with their ICE (again IMO) which is a shame - their other arms of electronics are rather good.

However, as with all ICE - the best SQ is what sounds good to you and your ears. Some people, for example, are perfectly happy with having the more budget end of the spectrum, or just want a sub just to add a bit of definition to the lower octaves, which is absolutely fine. There is the flip side where there are those that crave the absolute best and aren't afraid to dedicate the time and money to reaching their goal.

Alpine IMO are very good at the source and processing side of things (although a fair few people have been disappointed with the SQ of later HUs). Their HUs are packed full of features, but the more casual user may not use these features that often, if at all.

 

[paulbfd]

I think these days the market for car audio is so tight that most products are built to a price, not a specification. As such, sound & build quality ain't like what is used to be.

Take Migs new headunit for example and look at all the features it has for £84.

My headunit has a CD player (that won't play CDRs) and RDS. To buy it new back in 1998 would have cost you £600.

 

[MiG]

I'm suprised you even went for a sony walkman if your into your sounds, the are widely known as complete sh*te., I have the 20gb NW-A3000 and ive had the 20gb one before it and the 1gb flash memory one. I got the 20gb and the 1gb as presents but i dont even use them, i have an ipod video instead.,
The sony software is one of the problems i find with the mp3 players.,

Im just saying from personal experience that i find sony to be usless as i work in auto electrics and have fitted more radio's than ive had hot dinners.,.lol
Im not just a sony hater.,lol.,., i used to have my whole car kitted out in XPLOD gear.,

Alpine as a brand are a in a completely different leauge to sony (although i rate pioneer highly) and the fact that not many brands have support for sony walkmans says it all really.,.,.,

Right, i don't want to seem like a jackass here, but the points you make are ridiculous, about the quality of the Sound from the Sony..

Your iPod, has one of the worse headphone outputs on available, and if you take a visit to www.head-fi.org then you will see that anyone with an ipod uses the line-out, coupled with a headphone amp, because it sucks so bad.

The EQ of the iPod might as well not have been implemented, it sucks so bad.

The only reason people have support for iPod's is because it has all the market share, its as simple as that, if Sony was the market leader, it would more than likely say Walkman ready.. or whatever.

I Agree with you on the software, it can be a pain in the ass, but the latest Connect Player is faster than i ever got iTunes running.

Its just that, for me, this headunit produces a really good sound quality, i know there is better, i know you can spend thousands on car audio, but on a realistic level... The Sony is really good, using Pioneer 6x9's... and stock front speakers soon to be replaced.

 

[vtec]

Firstly, i dont want to get into an arguement here,..,lol
My main problem with sony mp3 players is the reliability rather than the sound quality which isnt any better or worse than the ipod really as i only use it in the car. the 20gb sony i have went funny for no reason and can only be used as a storage device now.
also if you want to use an mp3 player in the car you should turn the EQ off and adjust the sound from the headunit for the best quality,.,.

 

[Luke M]

I have a sony HU currently and i really like it. i find the remote very useful as the stereo position in the seicento isnt the most user friendly!

My HU: http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product.asp?product=21517

i think theyre easy to use and look good might not sound as nice as alpine but i think alpine need to update the style.

 

[vtec]

I have a sony HU currently and i really like it. i find the remote very useful as the stereo position in the seicento isnt the most user friendly!

My HU: http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/prod...?product=21517

i think theyre easy to use and look good might not sound as nice as alpine but i think alpine need to update the style.

I agree, i think alpine really needs to change the style a bit but other than that there good quality,.,.,
I installed one of those stereo's you have in my brother in laws car a while back, not bad for the money although the remotes are more of a novelty really, Ive had remotes with most of my stereos over the last few years and hardly ever use them.,lol
No harm in havin it though!..,

 

[bassy-alex]

I'm suprised you even went for a sony walkman if your into your sounds, the are widely known as complete sh*te., I have the 20gb NW-A3000 and ive had the 20gb one before it and the 1gb flash memory one. I got the 20gb and the 1gb as presents but i dont even use them, i have an ipod video instead.,
The sony software is one of the problems i find with the mp3 players.,

not about the headunit i know, but im very surprised that if your saying you know about sound quality etc... you got an ipod. If you want sound quality then creative or i-river are the only way to go... and to dis the sony software when you have an ipod (the most software dependant mp3 player ever!) is a joke!!! To get good sound quality froma ny mp3 player (the ipod in particular cos of its awful bundled headphones) you need to change the headphones.

Anyway, sorry for high-jacking the thread... good review, Ive always though the sound quality of the sony stereo in my dads Sei was pretty good... but its all down to personel preference, and what music your listing to through it...

 

[MiG]

Thanks for all the comments guys

i tried my best with the review

 

[BenW]

My main problem with sony mp3 players is the reliability rather than the sound quality which isnt any better or worse than the ipod really as i only use it in the car. the 20gb sony i have went funny for no reason and can only be used as a storage device now.
also if you want to use an mp3 player in the car you should turn the EQ off and adjust the sound from the headunit for the best quality,.,.

Just shows that you're an ipod fanboy. Ipods are well known for being unreliable, batteries that die after 10 months, scroll wheels that break, regular freezing etc etc.

I'll admit that i do have a Sony player (HD1) which i've had for about 3 years. Frozen once in that time and was solved with the battery on/off switch underneath. The battery lasted 30 hours when it was new and still lasts a similar amount of time (3 years of daily use). However its not perfect, it has some of the crappest software i've ever used but i can cope with that. It looks nice, its very small (smaller than current ipod 20gbs which is some achievement seeing as this design is about 4 years old or more).

But i feel their car audio is totally different, had a sony headunit and changer which i bought on ebay which was actually faulty but noth the HU and changer were so badly made, you could twist the faceplate really easily and the door on the changer didn't slide well at all. Was VERY unimpressed.

Got an alpine HU now (9847R) which is miles better. Its much heavier than the sony and the faceplate is very solid, a million times better than the sony. SQ from CD is much better although the radio reception on the sony was better.